Blog search

Twitter

About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

Not a good sign if you were high on this kid and wanted to see him in a Seahawks uniform. If it weren’t for the fact that he deals with maturity issues, I wouldn’t be so skeptical, but it speaks to me an awful lot like he simply would prefer not to be drafted by Seattle or Houston – likely because those teams probably have a little too much competition in his way, or simply because he doesn’t want to play in that part of the country.

He was “sick”? Come on, dude. He has supposedly been in near isolation for months, working out in some place in Florida that is dominated by retirees. So how’s he getting sick? Bad diet – maybe. Feels more like he simply just copped out for personal reasons.

Yeah, I’m cooling off on him as well. Maybe we will go after Margus Hunt ( I have strong feeling SF or NE will grab him before we get to pick ).
Maybe we will get Lattimore before SF takes him…
Last night was kind of fun. Jerry Jones needs a brain transplant and I’m loving it !

You know, this may have been Matthieu’s real reason for snubbing the Seahawks. It might be a stretch, but maybe he opted to not come out this way in order to live without temptation. It’s pretty sad if that’s the case, if puffing grass actually has that sort of negative effect on him and he can’t get over it.

The kid has smoked a lot of weed in his time. We aren’t talking just a few joints here and there. From what I read, it seems more like he was going through an ounce a week at least. If that’s the case it could be quite torturous for him to know he lives in a city six months out of the year where you can just walk in off of the street and into a store and buy a zip of your favorite strain of cush – and yet he knows he can’t do that w/out jeopardizing his career. Kind of brutal.

If Mathieu had enough neurons firing to make that very thought, Sekolah, he would be a first rounder. As it is, the kid is not smart. Perhaps he hired a smart agent, but I seriously doubt he has any kind of fore-thought.

There are 4 CB’s still available who are bigger AND faster than Honey Badger (Amerson, Slay, Gratz, Taylor) – Just sayin… I realize that’s not the be-all-end-all – none of those guys had 11 forced fumbles (still astonished by that number).

But, if the front office mantra is “bigger, faster, stronger,” Mathieu satisfies none of those criteria.

I wouldn’t call Matthieu “an idiot” or “not smart”. He’s just extremely immature. He’s been through a lot in his young life – home wiped out by Katrina, mom died, father is a lifelong convict stuck in a cell, and the man that raised him (his uncle) seems like he is also something of a shady individual. This kid has “high maintenance” written all over him.

I just think he’s a very depressed individual for a number of reasons. He turned to Mary Jane to help him cope with life’s challenges, but it began to just sink him even deeper into his depression, to the point where he just didn’t give a F anymore, and my guess is that he’s still teetering. He will likely need coddling at the NFL level; an understanding head coach and GM, and a strong mentor to take Matthieu under his wing is probably something his career will depend on.

Matthieu probably should go to the Cardinals where he can be with his best friend, Patrick Peterson. That could ground him, keep him stable.

Or, you know, he might actually have been ill. Maybe this is because I like him as a player, but thinking the worst of someone without knowing the truth is not really fair. I agree it’s good to be cautious when dealing with people who has had issues in the past, and he might be covering for something here, but he might not be. I think the locker room is strong enough for someone like Matieu, especially with a guy like Winfield to tutor him for a year or two, Kam and Earl a good leaders too. Ideally Thurmond could take over, but his injuries are an issue and I see Lane as someone who could win Browner’s job if he doesn’t sign with the club or his skill level begins to decline.

lololol Stevos. That was great. “The honey badger doesn’t give a sh**” Got to admit those creatures are just fearless. It’s like a honey badger comes out of his hole in the ground in the morning, and says “Wow. I am really hungry. I guess I’ll rip open this bee’s nest and treat myself to some honeycomb!”

in the case of just about anyone else other than Tyrann Matthieu, you’re right, it probably is unfair.

Here’s my problem: Tyrann Matthieu is what, 21 years old? Now I do not know how old you are, but when I was in my early 20’s, you couldn’t get me sick if you tried with all your might. On top of that, how sick do you have to be to miss what could possibly be crucial interviews which are based on a future career?

Most people that cared enough would probably power through being sick to make sure they talked with people that they were scheduled to be interviewed by. I mean, unless he was vomiting constantly, or dealing with a high fever, I find it hard to believe that even while sick he could not find the wherewithal in him to at least fly out and meet these people. If he’s not feeling well, all he has to do is just tell them “Hey, I came here to meet with you because this is the process. Now if you want to talk X’s and O’s we can do that. You need a physical? We can do that too, but I’m not running for you today because I’m not feeling well”. How difficult would that have been? This is his career on the line here.

Now I know he’s been flying around quite a bit, and visiting other teams. He may have truly been sick, as you can catch an illness quite easily if you do a lot of flying. The benefit of the doubt, however, is hard for me to just defer to though, because this kid has a history.

Honey Badger would be protected in our secondary under the Sherman media umbrella. Much of the attention he might get is already booked up for years to come. I’m not advocating drafting the guy but if we don’t do it in the 2nd round then Eric’s mock is shot! He’s a loose cannon that will tempt with his play making ability.

Is this kid really worth the risk? He’s a punt returner really, as most big NFL WRs will absolutely manhandle him. (See: bench reps at combine) Plus, sending him to Seattle (or Denver) is doubley risky given the marijuana laws. He’s bound to flame out in the exact same way Charles Rodgers did with Detroit. You don’t just suddenly become somebody that doesn’t LOVE smoking weed. In fact, his nickname could just as easily apply to his munchie behavior…

“You don’t just suddenly become somebody that doesn’t LOVE smoking weed. In fact, his nickname could just as easily apply to his munchie behavior.”

You know, I’d never thought of it that way, nek. The honey badger’s eating habits actually are somewhat similar to that of a stoner with the munchies.

As far as his ability to play in the NFL, I too am skeptical. I’ve watched his highlights, and while he looks like the kind of player just about any team would want, you have to really wonder if he’ll be capable of handling NFL sized receivers, backs and TE’s. I could very easily picture him getting trucked by a lot of players at those positions. He also does not appear to be that fast for a lil guy. He has good speed, but nothing real eye-popping.

He reminds me a guy the Seahawks had during the Holmgren era. His name is Willie Williams. He and Mathieu are basically the same size, same type of build, although Williams was a fitness freak, and definitely not a pothead. Willie was a feisty player too, but he also got burned quite a bit. He had that same kind of try hard attitude and energy, but he wasn’t that great of a player; at best he was medicore.

Teams with 2 2nd rd picks: BUF, CIN, NE, & SF. The 2nd rd is an odd one this season because NO lost their pick because of bountygate and CLE gave up their pick for getting Josh Gordon last year in the supplementary draft.

What’s Gus gonna do with the 1st pick today? Does he pick a QB (Geno Smith or Barkley), continue to build up their offense around Gabbert (Ky’s OG Larry Warford) or does he start building his kinda defense? Everybody seems to think he’ll go with a QB, but does he go with getting a pass-rushing defensive end (Damontre Moore or Cornelius ‘Tank’ Caradine) instead? Does he start with the kinda outside corners they got here in SEA? I just don’t see them in this draft.

Anyone think there is a chance we package up a 4th, 5th and a couple 7ths to give Gus Bradley a few more picks and allow us to have two in the 2nd? Considering this draft seems to have a lot of depth from the 2nd through 4th rounds, but was fair at best for the first round, I could be pleased to see somthing like this.

Let PC and JS grab both a linebacker with speed and a versatile DT in the 2nd round.

I know, hihgly unlikely. But still, I’d be surprised if we don’t do something today to trade some of our picks to a team in need of quantity over quality.

This guy is not worth the attention and time. He clearly lacks the maturity and doesn’t seem to understand that all the natural talent in the world will not matter if he doesn’t dedicate himself to his craft and focus on getting better at all phases. I don’t believe he will dominate at the NFL level. How does his ego handle that?
This team has so many incredible pieces to the championship puzzle. He is too big of a red flag for me. For all his talent, he was still kicked off the team. Not someone we need.

Honey Badger apparently does care, and will be sporting Cardinal red.
Probably the best fit for him with his buddy Patrick Peterson by his side mentoring him.
Smart move for AZ, since they have to see Percy Harvin and Tavon Austin twice a year.
No matter how immature he is, he is still a tremendous talent.
We will have some great battles to look forward to.

We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part and abiding by these simple rules.